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John D. Buenker Historical Research and Narrative The years between 1890 and 1920 were saturated with so many movements to "reform" society and to promote "progress" that historians have called that time period the Progressive Era. During that dynamic and complex era, Illinoisans from a wide variety of social, economic, ethnic, and geographical backgrounds struggled to adapt to life in a rapidly modernizing, industrializing, and urbanizing world. Their efforts spawned a sometimes confusing array of voluntary "reform" organizations, which usually carried over their various causes into the political arena, avidly campaigning for candidates favorable to their point of view, lobbying for laws embodying their programs, and serving in government agencies implementing that legislation. Crucial to that process were legions of "new women" who utilized these various crusades as "launching pads" into a public life denied to their mothers and grandmothers. At the same time, they used their newly emerging status and influence as leverage to change the world around them in socially beneficial ways for the most serious victims of rapid, massive change.
This second generation of female activists was the beneficiary of what historian Robyn Muncy has called the "transformation of the female experience" during the latter half of the nineteenth century. As such, they were able to break many of the bonds imposed upon women by a set of values variously known as the "Victorian imperative," the "cult of true womanhood," and the "doctrine of separate spheres"—notions that limited women's activities to family, home, and church, regarded public affairs as men's exclusive domain, and enjoined females to be passive, humble, subservient, and self-sacrificing. Most were the daughters of affluent, privileged families who were enriched through higher education; by the turn-of-the-century over one-third of all college students were women. Thus exposed to the wider world, they were unwilling to live solely in the private sphere and to play the role assigned to well-to-do matrons. Many of them sought fulfillment in such traditional female professions as nursing, teaching, and librarianship, while others embraced such newly emerging female professions as social work, public health nursing, home economics, or female-oriented medicine. As former University of Chicago historian Arthur Mann has declared, this new generation of feminists was "completely modern." According to the nation's most celebrated "new woman"—social worker Jane Addams of Cedarville, Rockford, and Chicago—they were motivated by a "necessity" that was both "subjective" and "objective," both personal and social. The former involved a deep-seated need to seek personal fulfillment and enhanced social status by carving out an exclusive and indispensable niche in public life. The latter was the need to be a vital part of "an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems" unleashed by "the modern conditions of life." Brilliantly transforming the restrictive doctrines of "true womanhood," the "Victorian imperative," and "separate spheres," they socially constructed the liberating concepts of "municipal housekeeping" or "social feminism." Utilizing these two notions, women were able to apply the tasks associated with the traditional roles of housewife and mother to a much wider "sphere" and to break down the wall of "separation" between private and public life. "Woman's place is Home," Rheta Childe Door insisted in What Eight Million Women Want, "but home is not contained within the 15
four walls of an individual house. Home is the community." In their professional culture, new women combined such "masculine" values as expertise, efficiency, and objective analysis with such "feminine" traits as self-sacrifice, social service, and empathy for the less fortunate. Thus inspired, they built a national network of voluntary organizations with a virtual monopoly on concern for the welfare of women and children. They also broke new ground by lobbying government for powerful intervention into those same areas. In the process, they succeeded in carving out a highly influential sphere of public life that Muncy calls the "female dominion," and in playing a major role in the construction of what social historian Theda Skocpol has dubbed the "maternal welfare state." It was in Illinois that two of the nation's most important "incubators" of the "new woman" were established during the 1890s: the University of Chicago Schools of Civics and Philanthropy and Social Science Administration and Hull House, the country's most famous social settlement. The former was one of the first institutions of higher learning in the country to train people specifically for such new professions as social work, public health, and home economics. Among its most important faculty members were Sophinisba Breckenridge and Edith and Grace Abbott. The former earned both a Ph.D. and a J.D. at the University of Chicago and taught there from 1904 to 1942, instructing two generations of social servants, producing meticulously researched studies of urban conditions, and participating in a wide variety of reform movements. The Abbott sisters, both proteges of Breckenridge, also practiced teaching, research, social work, and reform in a variety of combinations. At some point, all three of these new women resided at Hull House, the social settlement on South Halsted Street in Chicago founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. For more than forty years, Addams reigned as the most illustrious female reformer in the country, while Starr combined religious fervor, a love of art, and labor activism into a distinguished career. Over the years, Hull House's roster of resident social workers read like a "who's who" of new women, including Julia Lathrop, future head of the U.S. Children's Bureau, Dr. Alice Hamilton, pioneer researcher in occupational diseases, Florence Kelley, first head of the Illinois Bureau of Factory Inspection and founder of the National Consumers League (NCL), and Mary McDowell, first director of the University of Chicago Settlement and co-founder of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). Located in the heart of a teeming immigrant neighborhood, Hull House was virtually the sole provider of social services to its working-class constituents. Among other things, it operated a day nursery, a free employment bureau, the city's first public playground, a cooperative living club for single working women, a public kitchen serving cheap meals, a cooperative coal association, and a wide variety of courses dealing with nutrition, housekeeping, child care, and prenatal education. Hull House sponsored ethnic folk fests at which immigrants displayed and sold their Old World arts and crafts. It also played host to labor unions, with the residents even walking the picket lines and organizing boycotts of uncooperative employers. Its residents were deeply involved in political campaigns and lobbied vigorously for legislation on all levels of government.
16 Through its aggressive campaign of "creative philanthropy," Hull House persuaded wealthy women to fund "fellowships" to help support its work and to pay for the education of young women preparing to take their place in the "female dominion." Along with the city's other social settlements, Hull House also provided practical training for hundreds of women and men who became reformers and social activists. Despite their crucial roles as "incubators," the University of Chicago and Hull House clearly did not have a monopoly on the supply of "new women." Margaret Dreier Robins, co-founder of the WTUL, had been raised and educated in New York City and moved to Chicago in 1905 after marrying the head of the Northwestern University Settlement. She devoted most of her considerable energies to supporting female workers—in the workplace, on the picket line, and in legislative lobbies. Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, the daughter of German immigrants, devoted half a century to the Women's City Club, the Chicago and Illinois Federations of Women's Clubs (CFWC & IFWC), the Cook County Juvenile Court, and the Illinois Industrial School for Girls, and is best remembered as the founder of the National Council of Jewish Women. Ruth Hanna McCormick, daughter of a United States Senator and wife of a Congressman, was active in the causes of child labor, women's working conditions, and woman suffrage. A founder of the Illinois Progressive party in 1912, she later became the first woman in the nation to win a statewide election for Congress. Margaret Haley, born in Joliet of Irish-American parents and educated in public schools, functioned for nearly three decades as the chief lobbyist for the Chicago Teachers' Federation. She was also a major force in the WTUL and the Public Ownership League, and helped found the American Federation of Teachers. Although she lived in Illinois for only 12 of her 79 years, Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, the daughter of Irish immigrants and a full-time factory worker before she finished grammar school, made a lasting mark in the state as a labor organizer and state factory inspector. Even though she moved to Boston after her marriage, she maintained close ties to Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, and others through her activities in the WTUL, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the League of Women Voters (LWV).
May Wood Simons, raised in Wisconsin and educated at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, was a social worker, educator, journalist, and Socialist Party activist. After several years in Chicago, she returned to Evanston to teach at Northwestern and to play a leadership role in the Illinois LWV. Born into slavery in Mississippi, Ida Wells Barnett moved to Chicago in 1895 to carry on her career as a civil rights journalist and anti-lynching activist. She was a founder of the Illinois Negro Women's Club and the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, worked as a probation officer, operated a social club to aid Southern migrants, and helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1910. Raised and educated in Iowa, Grace Wilbur Trout moved to Oak Park, where she was active in numerous civic organizations, especially the IFWC, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the IESA. In the latter role, she was instrumental both in the passage of the state's Equal Suffrage Law of 1913 and in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Binding these outstanding individuals to each other and to tens of thousands of other female activists was, in Robyn Muncy's words, an "interlocking set of organizations and agencies" that together constituted an "informal network of reformers." Many of these were national federations with state or local affiliates, such as the GFWC or the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Although the majority of these organizations had only female members, a significant number of them, such as the NCL or the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), united men and women in common cause. While the preponderance of their membership consisted of women from the middle and upper classes, some organizations, such as the WTUL and the Illinois Women's Alliance, brought together women of all social classes in a spirit of sisterhood. One of the largest all-female organizations was the GFWC, which boasted eight million members and several thousand statewide and local affiliates by 1910. Begun as a series of local clubs devoted to the cultural and intellectual stimulation of leisure-class women, it evolved into a powerful lobbying group for a wide variety of measures designed to advance the welfare of women and children. Even larger and more militant 17
was the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), headquartered in Evanston. While its primary focus remained on the control of alcoholic beverages, the WCTU gradually embraced a "do-everything" platform that included many other socioeconomic and political issues and embraced women of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. The WTUL, with Mary Kenney O'Sullivan and Margaret Dreier Robins among its leaders, worked with the American Federation of Labor to unionize working women. Its members walked picket lines, raised strike funds, and organized demonstrations and boycotts, while lobbying for protective legislation for female workers. The Illinois branch of NAWSA and its offshoot, the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA), was among the largest, most active, and effective branches. Its large contingent of "new women" was highly instrumental in shifting its focus to "municipal housekeeping" as the primary justification for enfranchisement and in shedding the organization's elitist orientation by reaching out to working-class ethnics of both genders. Much of the state's landmark factory legislation of the 1890s and after was owed to the efforts of the Illinois Women's Alliance, a cross-class coalition of thirty unions and women's organizations. Many Illinoisans were also prominent in the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, which maintained a continuous presence in Washington advocating social welfare legislation. Also among the leaders were the Mothers' Congress (the forerunner of the Parent Teacher Association) and the Visiting Nurses Association, an influential force in the public health field. At the same time, many of Illinois' "new women" made major contributions to several mixed-gender reform organizations. From 1909 to 1935, Jane Addams served as president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections ( NCCC), whose membership included nearly all of the nation's social settlement residents. The NCCC was a powerful advocate for state and national legislation regarding child labor, aid to mothers with dependent children, and unemployment and disability insurance. In 1899, Florence Kelley became the long-time executive secretary of the NCL, which crusaded effectively against inhuman working conditions for women and children by naming their employers on "white" or "black" lists and by lobbying for protective legislation. Both of those organizations had overlapping memberships with the NCLC and collaborated with it during its long-term campaign to eliminate or humanize child labor. Even closer to home was the role of several prominent Illinois women in the founding and operation of the Chicago-based Immigrants' Protective Agency (IPL). Foremost among them were Margaret Dreier Robins, Sophinisba Breckenbridge, and Grace Abbott, who served as the organization's executive secretary from 1908 to 1927. Under Abbott's leadership, the IPL provided "first aid" to arriving immigrants, protected them from exploitation, and crusaded for the establishment of a federal protective agency, public control of private employment agencies, and the creation of free public employment offices. It also published numerous studies challenging popular negative stereotypes concerning the character of immigrants. Enmeshed in this national network of interwoven organizations, Illinois' "new women" were highly instrumental in the enactment of nearly all of the state and national legislation that constituted the foundations of America's "maternal welfare state" during the Progressive Era and after. First on the list was the Illinois Sweatshop Act of 1893, which seriously restricted child labor, limited the hours of female workers, and regulated working conditions in factories exploiting child and female labor, and which was enacted primarily through lobbying by the Illinois Women's Alliance. Although the state supreme court later invalidated the act's maximum hours provisions, the Alliance's member organizations spent the entire Progressive Era working to strengthen its scope and authority. Despite their persistent efforts, the Illinois legislature rejected numerous proposals to establish a minimum wage scale for women and children, even after the Vice Commission headed by Lieutenant Governor Barrett O'Hara in 1913 concluded that low wages were the major cause of women being forced into prostitution. A coalition including the WTUL, IFWC, NCL, NCCC and several other female organizations succeeded in gaining a women's hours act mandating a ten-hour day and a 54-hour week. Although a similar coalition pushed for further restrictions, aided by the report of the 1917 Illinois Industrial Survey, it failed to make any further progress. The WTUL, IFWC, and a coalition of social workers were the driving force behind the enactment of the Industrial Commission and Health, Safety and Comfort Act of 1909, which attempted to eliminate many of the defects in the Sweatshop Act of 1893. That law was 18 especially noteworthy for its provisions regarding hazardous machinery and safe and sanitary ventilation systems, and paved the way for the establishment of a Division of Factory Inspection in the newly created Illinois Department of Labor in 1917. The IFWC, ICL, the Mothers Congress, and the Juvenile Protective League were the most persistent advocates for strengthening of the state's child labor laws, achieving important gains in 1897,1903, and 1917. Illinois' pioneer Occupational Diseases Act of 1911 was the result of recommendations made by an appointed commission whose chief researcher was Alice Hamilton. The IPL, the WTUL, and Hull House were chiefly responsible for the 1899 law making Illinois the fifth state to provide a free employment bureau, a drive that produced additional offices in 1903,1909, and 1915. That same coalition also led the successful fight for the Private Employment Agency Act of 1909. Illinois "new women" were also in the forefront of efforts to provide for workmen's compensation, public health insurance, and old-age pensions.
These efforts of "social feminists" to protect women and children in the workplace paralleled their concern for the mother-child relationship in the home. In 1910, the IFWC, NCL, Mothers Congress, NCLC, and the WCTU were all vital elements in a broad-based coalition that succeeded in making Illinois the first major urban, industrial state to pass a Mothers' Pension Act. Although insufficient and flawed, this law and its analogs in other states, in the words of University of Illinois historian Mark H. Leff, constituted a "preliminary recognition of poverty as a public program requiring governmental remedies." Providing the constituency for the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, "social feminists" were largely responsible for the establishment of the Children's Bureau in the US Department of Labor in 1912. Led first by Julia Lathrop and then by Grace Abbott, the Bureau produced valuable studies on infant mortality, child labor, juvenile courts, mothers' pensions, illegitimacy, feeble-mindedness, rural child welfare, and recreation. During World War I, the Bureau made recommendations for governmental provision for the care of soldiers' dependents, compensation and insurance for military personnel, and aid to children of working mothers. Cooperation between various private, voluntary organizations composed primarily of women and the Children's Bureau were the driving forces behind the two most important federal social welfare laws of the late Progressive Era: the Kern-McGillicuddy Child Labor Act of 1916 and the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infant Act of 1921. Although a conservative Supreme Court invalidated the former, Congress responded with a proposed child labor amendment to the U.S. Constitution that contributed significantly to the decline of that social evil, even though it was never ratified. The same confluence of organizations and values also was largely responsible for the establishment of the U.S. Women's Bureau in the Labor Department, which formulated and enforced federal policies regarding female workers. Along with a handful of statutes regarding the well-being of railroad workers and federal employees, these laws and agencies constituted the substance of U.S. welfare policy prior to the advent of the New Deal in the 1930s. Moreover, it was this new generation of "social feminists" who finally succeeded in securing for women the right to vote. On the one hand, their philosophy of "municipal housekeeping" appealed to millions of men who were wary of earlier arguments based upon sexual equality, and who saw woman suffrage as an effective means to realize their own social agendas. On the other hand, the many achievements of "new women" in social welfare were positive proof that they were capable of functioning intelligently and effectively in the political arena. Led by Jane Addams, many "social feminists had played a key role in the formation and 19 operation of the Progressive Party in 1912," even though they themselves could not vote. As historian Steven Buechler has demonstrated, it was this "transformation of the woman suffrage movement" that enabled Illinois to become, in 1913, the first state east of the Mississippi River to allow women to vote, even on a limited basis. (In order to avoid the potential pitfalls of trying to adopt an equal suffrage amendment to the state constitution, its advocates agreed to settle for a statute mandating equal suffrage for all offices not created by that document.) The measure's success was due primarily to the efforts of the IESA, an organization dominated by younger "social feminists" who had acquired a high degree of political savvy from their many crusades for child and women's welfare. Seven years later, in 1920, those same women were the catalyst that allowed Illinois to become the first state officially recorded as ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Strengthened and encouraged by those successes, Illinois' "new women" played an even greater role in the development of America's "maternal welfare state" over the next two decades. In all that they did, these "new women" made giant strides toward true gender equality. CURRICULUM MATERIALS Tamerin Hayward Overview Main Ideas Much of the progress of the Progressive Era was made by and because of women who involved themselves in various reform movements to aid other women, children, immigrants, minorities, and those oppressed by industrialization and urbanization. These women included Jane Addams, Mary McDowell, Julia Lathrop, Ruth McCormick, and Ida Wells Barnett. They ranged politically from a Socialist party activist to a DAR member and professionally from a factory inspector to a journalist and from a settlement house administrator to a researcher in occupational diseases. They shared both a new vision of the role of women in society and a conviction that women could improve the future. Connection to the Curriculum These materials are directed toward a high school U.S. History course, but they could easily be useful in a sociology or an American government course. Teaching Level Grades 9-12 Materials for Each Student Each student should receive a copy of the article, "The Progressive Era in Illinois: 'Launching Pad' For 'New Women,'" individual copies of the assignments, and materials for the art project. This could be as simple as paper, colored pencils or markers, and paste, or as sophisticated as computer graphics. The choice will be based on the school's capabilities and the teacher's preference. There are several levels of difficulty and time allocation varies among the assignments. Which and how many of the assignments are used remain at the discretion of the teacher. Alternatively the students may be offered a range of grades depending on the number and difficulty of each assignment they undertake successfully. Objectives for Each Student
• The student will be able to recognize the
contributions and importance of women
in securing the rights and privileges all
people enjoy today.
Opening the Lesson A good opening for this lesson might be to recount or to read a brief incident from the life of one of the women to be studied. These can be found in the supplemental materials. The students will be assigned to read the narrative portion of the article followed by a brief discussion of their understanding of the term "new women."
Yes! 20 Developing the Lesson • Depending on how the material will be used, the teacher may provide a grading scale and criteria for a contract style series of assignments. For example: "C" is awarded for the successful completion of one of the matching exercises and the timeline. • Alternatively the matching exercises on organizations and people and the timeline could easily be structured as paired exercises. If group work is undertaken, identical grades should be given to both students. These are merely suggestions and should be amended to fit the grade and the level of the class as well as the time the teacher wishes to spend on the subject matter. • As the students are working, the teacher should be observing their efforts, offering suggestions and insights, and emphasizing the contributions made by these women to the present generation. The contributions the teacher might cite are safety regulations in industries, child labor laws, pensions, and women's right to vote. These can be done one-on-one as the students are continuing their work; and, if connected to the particular item on which they are working, will make a more lasting impression than a general lecture on the subject. • All of the exercises in the unit of study can be completed successfully without the use of resources beyond the article provided. However, if time permits and the teacher chooses, the quote exercise, the autobiograpy, and the letters to the editor can easily be turned into small research projects in which the students use their previously acquired research skills.
Concluding the Lesson
In concluding the lesson, the teacher
needs to encourage the students to look
from the past to the present and even to the
future. This can be done by connecting the
goals, the obstacles, the initiatives, and the
successes of reform movements of the past
to those of the present and by extrapolation those of the future. Students should be
drawn into a discussion in which they confront new problems with the problem-solving
techniques they have studied. They should
also recognize that much may be accomplished utilizing the same skills and strengths
that reformers employed to address problems and overcome obstacles.
Extending the Lesson
Both the autobiography and the
letters to the editor assignments may be
extended into longer research/creative
projects if the teacher so chooses.
The autobiography of Jane Addams
could be paired with an autobiography of a person of the late-twentieth century who is seen
by the students as similar in
outlook, accomplishments,
and historical importance
(Princess Diana or Mother
Teresa, for example). The
analogies the students could
then draw from these paired
biographies would serve to link
the assignment to the present.
After completing the letters to
the editor project, the students
could do a similar project on a current, or perhaps even a local, issue.
This could serve to demonstrate to the
students how crucial it is to understand the
diversity of opinion on any issue if one is
to seek public support for a solution.
Assessing the Lesson
The assessment of student interest and
learning will vary with the techniques
employed by the teacher. Several have
already been suggested for group or contract-style learning. The most valuable
assessment will come later when in other
lessons and other settings the students display the knowledge they have learned and
the insights that they have acquired to solve
new problems and reach new goals.
Handout 1 - Women and Reform Organizations
In the hope of making society safe for its most vulnerable members, women involved
themselves in many organizations. Match the following initials standing for reform organizations, unions, oversight committees, etc. with the descriptions of the groups which they represent.
1. __ Affects how people choose products they wish to purchase
a) IPL
2. __ Clubs for women in Illinois
b) VNA
3. __ One of the largest labor unions in the United States
c) JPL
4. __ Their purpose was to help black people to help themselves
d) AF of L
5. __ They hoped to influence voters
e) WJCC
6. __ Worked to secure the right to vote for women in Illinois
f) NCCC
7. __ Honored the American Revolution
g) IESA
8. __ Worked on women's suffrage on the national level
h) IFWC
9. __ Attempted to solve the problem of of child labor
i) AFT
10. __ Group who fought the use of alcoholic drinks
j) NCL
11. __ A teachers' union
k) NCLC
12. __ Alliance of women's organizations
13. __ Offered medical care in your home
m) NAWSA
14. __ Dealt with charities and prisons
n) DAR
15. __ Prevented the oppression of immigrants
o) NAACP
16. __ Prevented the abuse of young people
p) POL
17. __ Dealt with women's legislative issues
q) NCJW
18. __ Disliked private property
r) WTUL
19. __ Organization for ethnic and religious issues of Jews
s) IWA
20. __ Dealt with the formation of trade unions in industries
employing women
t) WCTU
Key on bottom of page 24
Handout 2 - Women and Their Accomplishments
Some of the most notable women reformers of the nineteenth century worked for their causes
within the state of Illinois. Their lives, struggles, and accomplishments insure them a place in the
history of the state and the nation. Match their names with their positions or accomplishments.
1. __ Founder of Hull House and Nobel Peace Prize winner
a) Grace Wilbur Trout
2. __ First head of the Illinois Bureau of Factory Inspection
b) May Wood Simons
3. __ First director of the University of Chicago Settlement and
co-founder of the WTUL
c) Jane Addams
4. __ Head of the U.S. Children's Bureau
d) Ruth H. McCormick
5. __ Researcher into occupational diseases
e) Ida Wells Barnett
6. __ Founder of NCJW and involved with the Illinois Industrial
School for Girls
f) Julia Lathrop
7. __ A founding member of the Illinois Progressive Party
g) Florence Kelly
8. __ Socialist party activist and member League of Women
h) Hannah G. Solomon
9. __ Journalist who helped to establish the NAACP and
Illinois Negro Women's Club
i) Alice Hamilton
10. __ Member DAR, IFCW, IESA and assisted in securing
j) Mary McDowell
Key on bottom of page 24
Handout 3 - Create a Quote
Using the information in the article, create at least one quote from each of five of the
women listed in Handout 2. These are not to be factual, but should reflect the real actions,
motives, and theories of these women. These quotes could be anything from campaign slogans to comments made to friends and associates to journal entries made in their own diaries.
Be inventive and have fun!
KEY to Handout 2, p. 23
Handout 4 - Timeline
Create a timeline of at least 10 entries beginning with the year 1889 and ending in the
year 1921. These entries should reflect legislation passed; commissions, committees, and
bureaus created; and charitable organizations founded. There may be more than one
entry for any single year.
Handout 5 - Jane Addams
Jane Addams is one of the best-known women in American history, noted for the founding
and administration of Hull House as well as her work in the areas of reform, women's rights, and
the peace movement. Write a brief autobiographical sketch in the persona of Jane Addams, who
is writing the sketch at the request of a local Chicago newspaper for an article celebrating Hull
House's anniversary. See how much information you can discover from the materials provided
to you.
Handout - Write Letters to the Editor
Create a set of letters to the editor regarding one of the issues discussed in the article.
These issues include women's suffrage, child labor, industrial safety, and the oppression of
immigrants and ethnic and racial minorities. Your letters to the editor should reflect a variety of opinions and information on the issue you have chosen. The specific details may be
created, but the viewpoints expressed should be well argued and logical. The letters
should point out the obstacles to reform such as ethnic prejudices, sexism, racism, and
profit motive.
Handout 7 - Traditional Views Change
Throughout history women's activities had been limited to family, home, and church by values
such as those identified as the "Victorian imperative," the "Cult of true womanhood," and the
"Doctrine of separate spheres." Not only did this prevent women from taking their rightful place in
history, but the world lost vast resources of creativity and talent.
In a logical argument using the evidence provided for you in the narrative portion of the article,
explain why this traditional view had to be changed.
Handout 8 - Create a Political Poster
Political activists have always understood the worth of pictures in their campaigns to
change traditional viewpoints and attitudes. Create a political poster in favor of women's
suffrage and a second against child labor. Use your imagination and creativity to get this
important message across to your target audience, namely the voters who can bring about


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0 537 Health / Diseases
Under new recent FDA guidelines, antibiotics should be used 'judiciously', or in other words, when necessary to keep animals healthy. The agency also wants to require a vet to prescribe the antibiotics – nowadays they can still be purchased over the counter by animal farmers. The draft recommendations by the FDA are not binding, and that is why the agency is asking pharmaceutical companies now to voluntarily put the proposed limits in place. They would need to adjust the labelling of their antibiotics to remove so-called production uses of the antibiotics. Three years The FDA hopes the pharmaceutical companies will phase out language promoting non-medical uses within a timeframe of three years. William Flynn, a deputy director in the FDA's veterinary medicine centre, told Associated Press: "Now you have a veterinarian who will be consulting and providing advice to these producers and we feel that is an important element to assure that they are in fact using these drugs appropriately." FDA officials pointed to scientific literature, supporting the role that animal use of antibiotics plays in reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics in humans. Related websites: • Food and Drug Administration
by Vincent ter Beek Apr 13, 2012
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The Gobi Desert
Geography and Climate
In the Western mind, Asia's Gobi Desert often evokes a sense of an alien world--a remote land marked by awesome and arid landscapes, torrid summers, frigid winters, long extinct life forms, striking modern life forms, epic adventure, spiritual sanctuary and unforgettable travel destinations.
This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end; and at the narrowest point it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat.
Marco Polo describing the hardships
of crossing the Gobi Desert in the 13th century
The Gobi -- the fifth largest desert in the world -- arcs across the borderlands of northern China and southern Mongolia. Extending for some 1200 miles east northeast from China's Tian Shan, or "Celestial," mountain range into China's Manchurian region, it covers well over half a million square miles, lying in the heart of Asia's most remote region. With the elevations of its basins ranging from roughly 1600 to 5000 feet above sea level, the Gobi lies at about the same latitudes as those of central Europe and the northern United States. Its arid climate is attributable to its location, in the rain shadow of the Himalayan and connecting ranges, which intercept moisture-laden clouds before they can reach most of the Gobi. The word "Gobi" means "large and dry" in the Mongolian language.
Across its span, the Gobi -- a sprawling patchwork of a desert basins and mountain ranges -- features primarily a firm and often rocky terrain marked by gravels and sparse vegetation. It has relatively few sand dunes, with those having been formed through time under the forces of persistent windstorms or heavy erosion. Its harsh terrain discouraged significant human occupation for thousands of years.
The desert, according to Wild World -- an important source on the Gobi Desert -- encompasses five broad, and diverse, ecoregions:
Eastern Gobi Desert Steppe -- The easternmost of the five ecoregions, the steppe (a plain with few to no trees) covers more than 100,000 square miles at an elevation of 3300 to 5000 feet. It encompasses a range of low mountains and desert basins with numerous salt pans and ponds. Typically, the steppe receives about four to six inches of precipitation in a year, primarily in the summer. Its temperatures range from hot in the summer to severely cold in the winter, when northern winds sweep unimpeded across the land. It has a surprising diversity of mammals and birds, especially in the part that lies in Mongolia, where the land has been relatively little touched by human encroachment. It has a distinctive and largely uniform plant community of drought-resistant shrubs and widely scattered low grasses. More on the Gobi Desert Plants
Alashan Plateau -- Located south and southwest of the Eastern Gobi Desert Steppe, the Alashan Plateau covers some 260,000 square miles. The largest of the Gobi's ecoregions, it has a terrain of 6500- to 8500-foot-high mountain ranges interspersed with intermontane basins. In its southern basins, it has 650- to 1000-foot-high shifting sand dunes. In its northern regions, it has the typical Gobi barren, rocky landscape. The plateau may receive as much as six inches of rainfall in a year, although the precipitation varies widely both in place and time. In the southern, drier part, it may receive no rain at all for years. The plateau does have a few rivers near its eastern edge, and it has numerous oases (fed primarily by mountain snowmelt) in its basins. As in the Eastern Gobi Desert Steppe, the plateau's temperatures vary widely with the seasons. It has an extraordinary diversity of wildlife, with some species native only to the plateau. Its plant community varies from minimal vegetation in the stone-covered areas to scattered shrubs and grasses in the most arid areas to forests along the rivers to reed beds in the low-lying wetlands. The Great Gobi National Park, located in Mongolia, in the northern part of the plateau, has such exceptional biodiversity that it has been listed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
Gobi Lakes Valley -- Situated to the north of the Alashan Plateau, the long and narrow Gobi Lakes Valley, covering about 53,800 square miles, lies in the midst of several mountain ranges. Averaging about 3300 to 4500 feet in elevation, the valley has a few sand dunes interspersed with salt marshes, and it has several large, but often dry, lakes fed by intermittent rivers that rise in nearby mountains. The valley receives some two to eight inches of rain in an average year. It has dry, windy summers with comparatively moderate temperatures, and it has moderately cold winters, with temperatures that sometimes approach zero degrees Fahrenheit. Its wildlife community includes species adapted not only to the arid landscape but also to the wetlands, where water birds, amphibians and various reptiles have found a home. Similarly the plants include species adapted to both the desert steppe and the wetlands environments.
Junggar Basin (Dzungarian Basin) -- A 117,500-square-mile expanse west of the Alashan Plateau, the Junggar Basin, somewhat like the Gobi Lakes Valley, lies in the midst of several mountain ranges, with broad openings to the northwest. Its elevation ranges from about 1600 to 3300 feet above sea level. Its arid heartland receives about three to four inches of precipitation in an average year, supporting enough vegetation to stabilize most of its sand dunes. Its margins, near the mountain ranges, receive four to ten inches of precipitation, which, with mountain runoff, sustain several basin lakes. It has moderate summers, but icy winters, when Siberian weather systems sweep through the northwestern openings and across the basin. It sometimes has severe dust storms in the spring. Its wildlife population includes some of the world's rarest animals. Its plant community ranges from thin shrub lands of the central region to dwarf woodlands near the mountain flanks. At one time, near the mountains, it had biologically rich meadows and wetlands near the foot of the mountains, but those have given way to irrigated farmlands within the past few centuries.
Tian Shan Range -- The westernmost of the Gobi Desert's ecoregions, the Tian Shan Range covers some 49,800 square miles. It consists of an extensive and isolated mountain range and high ridges interlaced with desert basins. Its highest summits rise to nearly 25,000 feet in elevation, and its ridges, to an average of about 14,000 feet. Its lower foothills and basins lie at only a few hundred feet in elevation. In an average year, the higher elevations receive about 16 to 32 inches of precipitation, and lower elevations, only about 4 to 8 inches. Mountain peaks may retain snow all year, but they yield enough summer melt off to supply some rivers and streams. The lower desert elevations have hot summers and icy winters. As a result of the wide range of elevations and environments, the Tian Shan Range sustains diverse wildlife and plant communities. It has a number of rare animal species, some native only to the region. Its desert basins support thin stands of sage and salt-tolerant shrubs; its rivers, savannahs with shrubs, grasses and popular trees; its lower mountain flanks, stands of fruit trees and maple; and its higher mountain flanks, forests of aspen.
Unfortunately, to some extent, all the Gobi's ecoregions have suffered from human intrusions--for instance, overgrazing, irrigation agriculture, overhunting and mineral exploitation. Further, the desert appears to be expanding, raising concern in many quarters. Various wildlife species may be facing extinction. More on the Gobi Desert: Wildlife, Plants, People & Cultures, Travel
By Jay W. Sharp
Desert Camping Sahara Style
The Life and Love of Sand Dunes
Other Deserts:
Australia's Great Sandy Desert
The Sahara Desert
The Chihuahan Desert
The Great Basin Desert
The Mojave Desert
The Sonoran Desert
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text: We spotted this amazing cat ramp on Lydiat's OnSugar blog [1] and just had to share it with you! Lydiat's husband constructed this impressive kitty ramp from this design [2] that's simple, attractive, and unobtrusive enough to blend in nicely with the room while providing a way for their feline to get upstairs. Check out my slideshow to see more pics of the finished project!


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Lebanese army forces searching for an influential Sunni cleric who has backed Syrian rebels were forced on Tuesday to defuse bombs planted by his followers while on the run in southern Lebanon.
Ahmed al-Assir, who supports opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had fled his complex following clashes between his followers and Syrian troops in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon that left at least 18 soldiers dead.
Weapons, including rocket launchers and machine guns, were eventually found inside the cleric's headquarters, said a Lebanese army officer.
Tensions in the area began in recent weeks when Mr. al-Assir attacked the Shiite movement Hezbollah, whose militants are fighting in Syria alongside government forces.
Hezbollah has condemned the clashes. "The army is the guarantor of civil peace in Lebanon and any attack against it is tantamount to an attack against the entire nation", Hezbollah said.
The conflict in Syria has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon.


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It's no longer a game. The body count is rising. Shaken by recent events, Amy and Dan flee to a distant land and trace the footsteps of their most formidable ancestor yet: a military leader of mythic proportions.
Yet just as the siblings begin to master the art of ancient warfare, they confront a dangerous enemy that can't be felled with a sword: the truth. With the stakes higher than ever, Amy and Dan uncover something so devastating it changes everything - the secret of their family branch.
Follow the clues! Listen to more mysteries in the 39 Clues series.
Please note: When you purchase this title, you will be emailed a unique ID that provides access to accompanying online material.
©2010 Gordan Korman; (P)2010 Scholastic
"fun chapter in this great series."
fun chapter in this great series. can wait for more twists clues and adventures. David Pittu shines as always.
"breath taking on the edge couldn't put it down"
I absolutely am in love all of the 39 clues series. I think they are all just wonderful books, a little short but a very good books in all.
Please pronounce the African languages correctly and the words the the people say like when you say Xhosa thank you
"just read it"
i cannot comment on every writer individually because the books sort of ran together for me during a week trip. I read them all and cannot pinpoint every writer.
I can say that they were all wonderful and have great stories mixed with history and geography. They can teach in a great fun exciting atmosphere.
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text:
Head to Suite 200 March 8th for there Mardi Gras Party and win FREE tickets to festevol in Crested Butte featuring O.A.R! The Concert will be at the tail end of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Gay Ski and will include special guest Pete Kilpatrick Band.
Doors open at 9pm tonight. We will be there from 9-11 giving away FREE festEVOL VIP Tickets and Stoli CB cards(free lift tickets). Don't Miss Out!
Visit skicb.com/festevol for more information.


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This section contains 727 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
Critical Essay by Christopher Ricks
Bloom had an idea; now the idea has him. For, still asking himself what there is left for him to do, but unable to bring himself to leap off in full career from what has become a juggernaut-bandwagon, [in "Poetry and Repression" he] has nothing left to do but to say the same things about new contests and with more decibels. He is running out of prize-fights. Blake vs. Ezekiel; Wordsworth vs. Milton; Shelley vs. Milton; Keats vs. Milton (the Muhammad Ali of it all); Tennyson vs. Keats; Browning vs. Shelley; Yeats vs. A. N. Other … too many of these squarings are return-fights demanded by Bloom's promotion. And the decibels start to defeat their own purpose. Bloom's whole strenuous rhetoric of struggles and opponents comes to sound more and more like shadowboxing. Or fixed wrestling: Wordsworth "holds Milton off...
This section contains 727 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |


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Asthma 101 Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways, caused by our reaction to allergens and irritants in the environment. The incidence of Americans with asthma has almost doubled since 1980 and is currently the leading cause of hospitalization for children under age 18. When asthmatic airways come into contact with environmental triggers, they respond with a series of changes that lead to contraction of the smooth muscles that line the interior of the airways, a swelling of the bronchial tissue and the production of thick mucus. The result is difficulty in breathing, a feeling of chest tightness and often coughing. These episodes usually end by themselves or with medication, but they can also be severe and life threatening. In the past, we viewed asthma as a completely reversible disease — that is we thought once acute symptoms ended, the lung function and airway architecture returned to normal. More recently, we have come to recognize that over time asthma can cause permanent damage in the health and function of the lungs. These slow changes, which include permanent thickening of the airways, are known as remodeling. It is a process that changes asthma from an occasional reversible problem into a constant issue for pulmonary health. But with good care and an awareness of potential problems we can keep asthmatic airways clear and healthy. Asthma usually begins in younger patients and can last a lifetime, but it can appear at any age. The symptoms of asthma are not always clearly apparent. For examples episodes of coughing that last for up to several hours and recur for weeks can actually be the first sign of asthma. The Four Stages of Asthma Stage I — Mild Intermittent Asthma Stage 2 — Mild Persistent Asthma Its important to recognize that asthmatic attacks in mild persistent asthma can be severe and life threatening. In fact, a study published in Pediatric Pulmonology found that 30% of asthma fatalities occurred in patients with mild, persistent asthma. Stage 3 — Moderate Persistent Asthma Stage 4 — Severe Persistent Asthma Asthmatics are particularly susceptible to certain factors in the environment. For example, plain cold air is a very well known trigger for asthma. Pollen from plants pets, dust, air pollution, and household cleaning solutions all can provoke over responsive airways. While more women than men are diagnosed with asthma, it may be more severe in men. A study from the Bellevue Hospital Asthma Clinic found that asthmatic men have lower lung function, more visits to the emergency room, and showed less of a response to medication intended to open blocked airways. Interestingly in children less than age five, asthma is diagnosed more frequently in boys than in girls. Asthma tends to become worse at night, due to both physical and environmental issues. Sleep increases airway sensitivity, leading to bronco-constriction. One reason may be that the body continually releases an anti-inflammatory substance called cortisol. There is however a nighttime fall in cortisol levels, which in asthmatics may lead to increased airway inflammation. The bedroom itself may be the unwitting source of many airway irritants. Bedrooms have a homes highest concentration of dust mites whose allergens are among the most frequent causes of asthma symptoms. These microscopic organisms burrow into carpets and bedding, hide under the bed and bury themselves in the folds of curtains. Eight hours of close exposure to high concentrations of dust mites during the night can be a constant trigger for nighttime symptoms. The goal of asthma management is to control the symptoms, not to let asthma control your life. |
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When we talk about shared vision, we don't mean an idea. Instead, we're referring to a force that is in people's hearts. Peter Senge states: "When people truly share a vision they are connected, bound together by a common aspiration. Personal visions derive their power from an individual's deep caring for the vision."Becoming a Holistic Leader: Strategies for Successful Leadership Using a Principle-Based Approach
Shared vision is an essential component of a learning organization because it provides the focus and energy for learning. The underlying force is the desire by people to create and accomplish something. And the bedrock, as Senge calls it, for developing shared visions is personal mastery.
Shared vision emerges from personal visions, and this is how energy is formed and commitment created. Managers must therefore walk a fine line when they express their own visions. To master the discipline of building shared vision requires that managers understand that visions are not announced from the top or that they come from strategic planning processes.
The traditional approach to creating a vision for the organization has largely failed in most organizations because employees have been unable to connect with the vision developed by management. In other words, the vision that's communicated to employees has not built on the personal visions of others. They're not enrolled in the vision. The consequence has typically been apathy and a lack of energy on the part of people.
Of course visions can, and indeed should, be conceived by senior managers. But senior management must realize that their vision can't be considered 'shared' until others in the organization feel part of it. Their personal visions must connect with the larger vision.
Building shared vision requires daily effort by managers. It must be a central part of their work. And they must remember that the visions they develop are still their personal visions. As Senge asserts: "Just because they occupy a position of leadership does not mean that their personal visions are automatically the organization's vision."
Creating shared vision goes hand-in-hand with systems thinking. The latter enables people to understand what and how the organization has created. Vision portrays what people want to create. Because most managers don't experience that they are contributing to their current reality, they have great difficulty in seeing how they can contribute to changing it. They see their problems as being caused by the system or by external factors.
This attitude, as Senge explains, "…can be elusive to pin down because in many organizations the belief 'We cannot create our own future' is so threatening that it can never be acknowledged." To be a good manager (or leader) means that you are in charge of your own future. A manager (or non-manager for that matter) who openly questions the organization's ability to accomplish what it's attempting is quickly labeled as being not on board or as rocking the boat. The underlying cause for this occurrence is that organizations tend to be dominated by linear thinkers instead of systems thinkers.
This leads us to the final discipline: team learning. As we'll see, team learning is all about 'alignment' and getting people working in synch with one another. This is where creating shared vision can be a powerful force.
The medium of leadership is the energy of other people. Dick Richards
Next Post: Team Learning: Looking Beyond Yourself
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November 20, 2007
By Yevgeny Volk, Ph.D.
On December 2, an estimated 100 million Russian voters are expected to elect 450 deputies to the State Duma, the Russian Federal Assembly's lower house. Unlike every parliamentary election since 1993, all the deputies will be chosen from the party lists compiled by the leaders of 11 parties formally registered to run in the election. The 450 seats will be distributed on a proportional basis among parties that receive at least 7 percent of the vote.[1]
In Russia, parliament is seriously circumscribed by presidential rule. The Duma is almost completely subservient to the incumbent regime, rubber stamping laws initiated by the Kremlin. At the same time, parliamentary elections are important to the Kremlin, because they retain some semblance of an enduring democratic institution in Russia and indicate that the country belongs to a civilized democratic community. Yet, Russia's electoral process is entrenched in corruption, and the government has curtailed observation by international watchdogs.
Now that President Putin has agreed to lead the pro-government United Russia ticket, the upcoming elections look like a referendum on the credibility of the President and his Cabinet. Since victory is a forgone conclusion, the regime will undoubtedly use the election results as a justification to keep Putin in power. Although Putin is required by the Constitution to step down in early 2008, a resounding victory by United Russia will give him a mandate to promote his protégé to the presidency.
While it should avoid choosing sides in the election, the United States must send the Kremlin a clear message that the integrity of Russia's democratic process will largely determine the direction of its development and the future U.S.-Russian relations.
Peculiarities of Existing Electoral Law and Campaigning
To Russians, parliamentary elections are not as critical as the presidential election. This is a result of many factors, including the Russian Constitution, a feeble civil society, a weak system of checks and balances, dramatic strengthening of the executive branch under President Vladimir Putin, and the Kremlin's control over large parties.
In contrast to the four preceding State Duma elections, the upcoming parliamentary vote will see the electorate's choices significantly restricted. Amendments to the election law have eliminated individual candidates for majority (single mandate) districts. The electoral threshold for political parties was increased from 5 percent to 7 percent, effectively denying representation to supporters of the center-right Union of Right Forces and liberal-left Yabloko. In addition, the mandated minimum voter turnout required for a valid election was abolished.[2] Political parties face tough registration requirements designed by the Justice Ministry and the Central Elections Commission. A Putin-approved law from July 2000 raised the minimum nationwide membership for registered political parties from 10,000 to 50,000; the threshold was just 100 in the mid-1990s.[3] These regulations implicitly favor the parties that toe the Kremlin line, as the authorities tended to turn a blind eye to their manipulations by strong parties. At the same time, the parties critical of the regime, like the Republican Party, headed by independent State Duma deputies Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vladimir Lysenko, were denied registration and are now defending their rights in the European Court of Human Rights.
Still, 11 parties have been registered for the elections: the Agrarian Party of Russia, Civil Force, the Democratic Party of Russia, the Communist Party (KPRF), the Union of Right Forces (SPS), the Party of Social Justice, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), A Just Russia, Patriots of Russia, United Russia, and Yabloko. Only two to four of them are likely to win seats in the Duma: United Russia, the Communist Party, Just Russia, and LDPR.
Ultimately, the key campaign issues are popular support for Putin and the living standard of the population. Putin and his United Russia are parading the following achievements before the public: high economic growth rates (an average of 6.5 percent for 2000-2007, with 6.7 percent in 2006); a wage surge (13.4 percent in 2006); a pension hike (21 percent in 2007); a spike in appropriations for social services, primarily for education, healthcare, housing, and the depressive agricultural sector; and a rise in defense allocation.[4]
At the same time, the opposition-both on the right and the left flanks-is also in possession of serious trump cards. Inflation has climbed 10 percent this year and eats up the better part of increased incomes. Reforms related to pensions, self-government, and municipal issues fell flat; privatization was aborted. Administrative reforms ended in failure.[5] The government has stepped up its crackdown on business.
The social apathy of the better part of Russia's voters is another peculiarity of the present campaign. Most voters do not believe the elections will affect their lives. Polls show that nearly half the population is sure that most Duma deputies discharge their duties poorly or very poorly.[6] The State Duma's approval rating is one of the lowest for Russian government and public policy institutions. Poor ratings for live election debates on government-run television channels further reveal the lack of public interest in the Duma and its deputies.[7]
United Russia as Clear Frontrunner
According to most forecasts, United Russia is likely to win a hands-down victory in the upcoming election. The fact that its federal ticket includes President Putin has dramatically boosted its ratings.
United Russia is a major league bureaucratic party that was designed for Russia's officialdom in the image and likeness of the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Membership in the party is mandatory for rising to key government positions. Significantly, "in 62 of the 83 regions, it named the governors to head its party lists."[8] It is common knowledge, though, that none of these governors has any intention of stepping down and working in the Duma. Upon getting elected, they will simply give up their Duma seats to candidates ranked next to them on the party lists. Their role is that of an engine to promote United Russia's candidates.
The Party of Millionaires
Under the electoral code, every State Duma aspirant must declare his or her income and holdings. United Russia candidates' incomes, at least by Russian standards, are significantly higher than those of most other parties. President Putin's 2006 annual income of $80,000 ranks among United Russia's lowest. Then again, Samara Provincial Governor Vladimir Artyakov earned $57 million last year; Duma deputy Vladislav Reznik made $47 million; another deputy, Vladimir Gruzdev, made $38 million. Putin is presented as being much poorer than most provincial governors, whose annual incomes are significantly higher than $1 million.[9] These incomes are substantial by Russian standards; Russia's average monthly salary of $600 is comparable with the U.S. poverty line.
United Russia's structural and status criteria are not the only parameters likening it to the extinct Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Communist traditions are clearly visible in its campaign drive. United Russia's campaign platform, named "Putin Plan is the People's Plan," echoes Communist slogans that go back 30 to 40 years. At its party congress, United Russia nominated Putin-unopposed and accompanied by sycophancy and glorification-as the lone candidate to lead its federal ticket. The entire procedure was reminiscent of the Brezhnev era.
Why is United Russia enjoying such high approval ratings? Apart from Putin's personal popularity, the Russians tend to share a deep-seated belief that the powers that be are better geared for combating the nation's problems than those who wield no power. As with the previous elections, United Russia has access to "administrative resources," including government-controlled television and the willingness of provincial governors to boost the party's candidates."[10] Local control over campaigns is also crucial. As Joseph Stalin used to say, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes."
In regions with largely non-Russian ethnic populations and strong clan traditions-such as the North Caucasus and Western Urals-the fact that local leaders run for parliament on United Russia's regional ticket serves as a voting model for the rest of the local populace. In such provinces, the number of votes cast for "the party of power" is normally significantly higher than the country's average.
United Russia's candidate list contains quite a few popular Russian personalities. Apart from Putin, it includes Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov; Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu; Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev; and prominent athletes, scholars, and entertainers. Loyalty to Putin is their common feature. The other trend is connection to business: "…an analysis of United Russia's party list shows that at least 72 of the 600 candidates, or 12 percent, have direct links to large or medium-size businesses. Many of the candidates occupy high posts on the lists, indicating that they have good chances to win Duma seats."[11]
United Russia is raising its election campaign to the level of the absurd. One poster at a university attributes the maxim "knowledge is power" to United Russia instead of English philosopher Francis Bacon.
As the party in power, United Russia is vulnerable to the opposition's stinging criticisms about the problems and difficulties facing Russia's populace, including low living standards and high inflation rates. United Russia's leadership renounced participation in the televised public debate with the other parties, invoking the law they had helped push through the Duma that allows them to do so. This development is seriously undermining the other parties' chances to build their campaign platform on polemicizing with United Russia.
The election campaign of State Duma deputies is picking up steam. Thus far, United Russia's leadership appears undisputed, but things within its ranks are not as smooth as its leaders claim. In early November, debates took place among United Russia's three factions-"socially oriented," "liberal," and "conservative-patriotic"[12]-that exposed the party of power as an artificial conglomeration of politicians holding diverse stances. The one thing they have in common is a hankering after power at any cost.
Unlike the social faction that openly holds populist social-democratic views and the "conservative-patriotic" platform that is virtually ultra-nationalist, the liberal faction largely embraces the principles of a free-market economy. Admittedly, such showy pluralism can be viewed as yet another PR campaign to win over voters leaning toward other parties. But that political promiscuity could also hurt United Russia; the majority of United Russia voters with socialist leanings are hardly prepared to vote for its liberal faction.
There are other factors likely to complicate United Russia's march to power. With every poll showing United Russia as the unconditional frontrunner, a lot of voters could well fail to turn out for the elections out of complacency. This would raise the ante for other parties with a more disciplined electorate.
Another controversy emerged surrounding a suggestion by United Russia's ethnic policy coordinator, Abdul-Khakim Sultygov. He and another party leader proposed to introduce a "national leader" status for Vladimir Putin.[13] This initiative brings to mind 19th and 20th century analogies such as the Italian "Il Duce" Benito Mussolini, Spanish "Caudillo" Francisco Franko, let alone the German example of the "Fuehrer."
Tellingly, United Russia's leaders did not find Sultygov's idea entirely unacceptable. They wholeheartedly subscribe to its purpose-keeping Putin in power in some capacity in the aftermath of the parliamentary and presidential elections. It was the suggested method of ensuring Putin's ascendancy-through signing a national "civil pact" and a nationwide oath of allegiance to Putin-that came under fire from United Russia's leadership and was disavowed by a Putin spokesman.[14] However, the "national leader" proposal is far from discarded from the political playing field.
Communists Always Second Best
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is the most belligerent opponent of the Putin regime. Its opposition, however, is mostly verbal. Longtime Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov had the following to say about the nation's present leadership:
"Today the country is ruled by bandits, oligarchs, and bureaucrats who-like a malignant tumor-are sucking our nation dry. We are facing up to the course pursued by Putin and his government. We deem this socio-economic policy totally ineffective."[15]
In reality, however, the Communist leaders are fully integrated into the regime. For the most part, they support government-initiated draft laws in the State Duma.
The Communist electorate is largely made up of senior citizens nostalgic for the Soviet era, who retain their loyalties to the Communist ideology. Unlike leftists in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia's Communist Party failed to develop social democratic leanings and retains its Leninist-Stalinist stance. It is banking on the support of portions of the populace who were impoverished in the course of the market reforms and could not adapt to a new economic situation. The number of such voters is steadily declining between elections due to both natural causes and a greater integration of the Russian population into the market economy. Hence, the Communist Party electorate is steadily falling.
Communist leaders criticize the Putin regime in bitter terms but are incapable of proposing anything positive or constructive. Most of their populist slogans that aim at improving the living standards of unprotected groups of the Russian population have found their way into the arsenal of other parties, including United Russia and even the right-wingers. This is a hitch in the game the Communists are playing on the social protest field where they used to be strong.
The Communist Party has an edge over the other parties owing to the discipline and excellent organization of its electorate. Its elderly loyalists are used to mandatory voting since the Soviet era, and their turnout rates are traditionally higher than those of the other parties. Backed up by activists with more free time on their hands, the Communist Party can spend fewer campaign resources. By late October, its campaign fund had $2 million altogether. In contrast, the campaign funds of the leading parties, including United Russia, the LDPR, and even the Union of Right Forces, were more than 10 times higher.[16]
Liberal Democrats in the Running
Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR has a better chance of making it into the Duma than any other party save United Russia, although it is not a foregone conclusion. This right-nationalist party is a kind of one-man band. Its popularity is hanging on the striking and contradictory personality of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for his nationalist and xenophobic pronouncements. It is no small wonder: His party's slogan is "good for (ethnic) Russians means good for everybody else."
Zhirinovsky is no opposition politician, though. LDPR's faction in the State Duma tends to approve the government's draft laws on most issues. Zhirinovsky often acts as the Kremlin's mouthpiece to float the ideas the Kremlin deems attractive but too outrageous for moderate voters and the outside world.
Given the current high rate of illegal and legal immigration into Russia from the former Soviet republics and the prevalence of immigrants in an array of key economic sectors (retail, produce markets, gambling), Zhirinovsky's nationalist ideas are getting a rousing response from a large number of ethnic Russians.
Zhirinovsky's stance on international issues is clearly anti-Western. Addressing the LDPR Congress with a presentation titled "Global Civil War," Zhirinovsky identified Great Britain as Russia's arch-enemy. Also quite telling is the choice of the person placed second on the party's federal ticket. It is Andrei Lugovoy, a former Federal Security Service officer-turned-businessman, who is charged in the United Kingdom with the murder of FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko. The U.K. is seeking his extradition in conjunction with the case.[17]
LDPR's loyalty to the Kremlin has been generously rewarded. Today it has the largest electoral fund, and the businessmen making up the majority of the ticket are the wealthiest.[18] Another advantage for LDPR is that the Kremlin does not view Zhirinovsky and his party as United Russia's rival. LDPR's electorate is largely made up of marginal segments of the population unlikely to ever support the mainstream United Russia.
Zhirinovsky has always taken advantage of extreme situations to boost his popularity, but with the current stability in Russia, his approval rates are sliding and many people are bored with his act. Thus, it is not a foregone conclusion that LDPR will overcome the 7 percent plank.
Just Russia's Electoral Chances
The Just Russia party, headed by Sergei Mironov, Speaker of the Federation Council (Parliament's upper house), is the creature of the Kremlin's "political technologists," who aimed to establish a two-party system where both parties-formally competitors-would be completely under the Kremlin's control. The Kremlin looked to have United Russia represent the right flank and Just Russia the left. The authorities also intended Just Russia to use its social-democratic slogans to take votes away from Communists and possibly come second in the race.
However, the Kremlin seems to have dropped this option. The odds might have favored Mironov if some other candidate had topped United Russia's federal ticket. But with Putin's nomination, Just Russia's plans to become "the second party of power" fell through. In contrast to three or four months ago, when many politicians and even some parties joined Just Russia, the reverse is true today. The party is torn apart by factional strife. Its members are concerned that whatever chances it had to make it to the Duma have been seriously jeopardized by Putin's candidacy.[19]
Do Liberals Have a Chance?
The Union of Right Forces (SPS) and Yabloko are the only parties running for the Duma that represent opposition to the Kremlin. Neither party counts on the Kremlin's support, although some of their leaders are laboring under the delusion that assistance from on high will be forthcoming.
SPS is the most consistent force to defend the principles of economic freedom, the rule of law, and civil society in Russia. Its power base is largely represented by the fledgling middle class. However, it is facing grave internal and external problems. A split attitude toward the Putin regime has generated two schools of thought within the party. The first stands for backing Putin on key issues and offering only tempered criticism; the second favors bitter criticism of the Putin regime as the basis for drafting their own platform and electoral tactics.
The Kremlin and United Russia rightfully regard SPS as their real contender and seek to discredit it. The party's detractors are aggressively using the fact that Anatoly Chubais, who sides with SPS, is CEO of the government-controlled energy monopoly Unified Energy Systems (RAO UES). They charge that the energy monopoly's resources are being channeled to fund the party campaign. President Putin also commented on the matter:
It is common knowledge that Anatoly Chubais is one of SPS's formal and informal leaders. He also heads one of our largest energy companies. It commands enormous resources, not only financial but quasi-administrative opportunities to influence people, because it is represented in every village, town, and community. It is capable of providing not only moral and administrative but also financial assistance. I am hopeful that what they are doing is within the law. I wish I could believe it. In fact, it is covert support of this "right force"-Union of Right Forces, as it is called-by the government.[20]
A great many SPS opponents blame spiraling inflation on United Energy Systems, claiming it is bankrolling the SPS campaign. SPS is also the target of a smear campaign. Leaflets published on behalf of SPS and disseminated in some provinces called on AIDS patients and the HIV-infected to enroll as campaign activists. According to one of the party's leaders, Leonid Gozman, "The scale and wastefulness of the implemented actions indicate that the entity calling the tune is a powerful federal agency rather than a specific provocateur."[21]
SPS has recently stepped up its criticism of Vladimir Putin and United Russia as its electoral campaign pivot. It plans to take part in the November 24-25 Dissident March organized by the radical anti-Putin coalition, The Other Russia. SPS Leader Nikita Belykh announced that SPS subscribes to the march's chief slogan, "For Russia-Against Putin!"[22]
Retaliation was swift. According to Nikita Belykh,
the Putin-headed 'party of power' declared SPS its arch-enemy. The bureaucratic machinery fell on SPS with all its force with a barrage of lies and criticisms. Law enforcers are arresting print runs of its newspapers in millions of copies, and attacks on its headquarters are underway. The Interior Ministry has launched detentions and arrests of innocent people. SPS activists, operators and Duma candidates are constantly under pressure from every quarter. The authorities are trying to bribe SPS members with money and lucrative positions, at the same time threatening to strip them clean and put in custody, and launching criminal probes. They are pressured through their friends and relatives. The Kremlin wants the SPS to abandon the struggle and quit the electoral campaign. It looks to crush and destroy the party as an independent political force because it is clearly running scared.[23]
However, SPS radicalization brought about the exodus of some regional leaders from the party ticket. Be that as it may, the odds for SPS winning Duma seats are slim.
The same could be said about Yabloko. The party largely unites an intelligentsia that failed to find its place in the socio-economic circumstances of post-Communist Russia. In addition, SPS and Yabloko face competition for liberal votes from the newly formed Civil Force party, led by well-known lawyer Mikhail Barshchevsky. Unlike the former two, Civil Force is in the Kremlin's good graces. Barshchevsky himself holds the prestigious position of the Russian government's representative at the Constitutional, Supreme, and Supreme Arbitration Courts.
Political Dwarfs
Some minor parties are also running for the Duma seats. For example, the Russian Democratic Party's objective is to get Russia into the European Union and NATO. The party will likely have difficulty garnering even 1 percent of the popular vote.
For other parties, the chances of winning Duma seats are close to nil. Nevertheless, the Kremlin-with specific political objectives in mind-has approved their running for parliament. First, it seeks to create the semblance of a multi-party system and political pluralism in order to refute the thesis of a guided democracy in Russia-a premise very much in evidence in the West. Second, allowing these parties to run will take away electoral votes from larger parties that the Kremlin deems undesirable as Duma members. These are largely left-wing parties. Most of them-the Agrarian Party (its number two is notorious Communist maverick Vassily Shandybin), the Party of Social Justice (Alexei Podberyozkin), and Patriots of Russia (Gennady Semigin)-are led by former Communist Party allies and contend for the leftist electorate's votes. Together, they could take away quite a few votes from the Communists.
Elections Free and Fair?
Most independent Russian and foreign experts are of the opinion that the elections will be neither free nor fair. Unequal access by the contending parties to the news media and immoderate tapping into "administrative resources" will severely restrict the opportunities for free and fair voting. The pro-government United Russia and its chief candidate, Vladimir Putin, have an enormous campaign edge over the other parties.
According to Yelena Panfilova, who heads the Russian office of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, "the scope of the use of the administrative resources this year is a lot larger than previously."[24] Experts note that with the Duma elections looming large, preparations for rigging them are in full swing. This tendency is quite marked in the provinces where participation by independent observers is limited and the authorities' arbitrariness knows no bounds.
According to Boris Nemtsov, member of the SPS Political Council,
"The local election commissions are already notified how many votes United Russia is to receive in every voting precinct - 69 percent in some places, 100 percent in others. Governors are bending over backwards to ensure the required result because they are appointed by the President and are well aware of what is at stake and what to fight for."[25]
The contending parties also have fundraising problems. The conditions in the country are such that bankrolling opposition parties is becoming quite dangerous. Businessmen appreciated the danger of doing so in full measure after former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky (who has bankrolled several opposition parties) was arrested (in 2003).[26] Khodorkovsky has received an eight-year sentence, and a new case against him has been opened.
The Russian authorities are not interested in having large numbers of independent election observers. The Russian daily Kommersant reports:
Some 330 to 350 international observers are expected to be in the country on election day, Central Elections Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov said. Of these, around 100 will represent the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE], he said.[27]
According to The Moscow Times, "Churov further said that excessive numbers of 'so-called foreign observers' during upcoming State Duma elections would interfere with Russia's internal affairs."[28]
Finally, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) was compelled to cancel its planned observer mission for the upcoming Duma vote and accused Moscow of stonewalling cooperation.[29] Indeed, the Russian authorities did their best to show OSCE their negative attitude toward its monitoring activities. After several weeks of waiting for Moscow's invitations, the OSCE was faced with unprecedented restrictions: Its mission was reduced nearly six-fold-from 450 at the 2003 elections to 70 for the December 2 elections. Russian entry visas were continuously delayed for ODIHR applicants. In fact, the Russian authorities pressured OSCE into canceling its mission by knowingly creating unacceptable conditions for its work.
Small wonder that the Kremlin slammed ODIHR for derailing election monitors, blaming confusion at the ODIHR and its leadership's "scornful mode of action." Furthermore, the Russian Foreign Ministry underscored the timing of the OSCE's decision to cancel its observer mission, which followed the Head of the ODIHR's trip to Washington. It was a clear allusion to the U.S. having a hand in OSCE's decision to suspend the monitor mission.[30]
Most observers are subscribing to the opinion that revoking the OSCE mission opens up broad opportunities for rigging the elections and for multiple violations and manipulations. There is no excluding a similar decision by observer missions of other international organizations, for example, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, although the Russian officials have promised to increase their numbers. Their non-attendance could seriously hurt the legitimacy and credibility of the Duma poll as free and fair.
Around 30 observers will represent the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. These groups found no fault with dubious elections in other post-Soviet nations. Another 30 will represent the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Churov said.[31] The Kremlin sent out no invitations to any observers representing American NGOs, including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute.
Implications for the United States
The upcoming State Duma elections are unlikely to significantly affect Russia's domestic and foreign policy. Irrespective of the election outcome, the Duma will continue to work hand-in-glove with the Kremlin. Still, these elections are critical from the perspective of evaluating Russia's standing as a democracy, the rule of law, and its civil society record. The U.S. government has leverage to demonstrate its attitudes toward political developments in Russia and to influence public opinion there.
The U.S. government should do the following:
In most democracies, the electoral process is known but the results are typically unknown before election day. In Russia, however, the results are generally known well in advance; it is the electoral process that remains a mystery from year to year. The Kremlin's persistent manipulation of the electoral process-ranging from smear campaigns and denying media access to the opposition, to United Russia's failure to participate in public debates with other parties-has demonstrated the increased degradation of democratic processes in Russia. The number of parties participating in the December parliamentary elections is not indicative of democratic growth, rather it is a mere show demonstrating a weak and divided opposition and the increasing popularity of radical, ultra-nationalist fringe groups. Russia's electoral system is entrenched in corruption-controlled and manipulated by government-friendly oligarchs, former Communist leaders, and Putin's loyal inner circle-all in the name of profit and power.
Of particular concern are the significant obstacles the Russian government has imposed on international election observers. With election-rigging anticipated as a near-certain aspect of the December elections, the Putin Administration has made every possible effort to prevent OSCE observers from attending. Nevertheless, the United States and other democracies countries must make every possible effort to assess the legitimacy and fairness of the elections while avoiding openly intervening or indicating their political preferences. It is the integrity of the democratic process that will largely determine the direction of Russia's development and future U.S.-Russian relations.
Yevgeny Volk, Ph.D., is Coordinator of the Moscow Office in The Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
[1] Moscow Times, "11 Parties Registered," October 29, 2007.
[2] Izvestia, "Floating 7-Percent Threshold," September 5, 2007.
[3] "On Political Parties," Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 95-FZ (July 11, 2001), Art. 3, at www.democracy.ru/english/library/laws/parties_fz95_eng/index.html, and Freedom House, Freedom in the World 1996-1997 (Washington, D.C.: Freedom House, 1997), p. 423.
[4] President Vladimir Putin. "Our Plans Are Not Just Big, They Are Grand," Izvestia, October 19, 2007.
[5] Vladimir Milov, "Years of Reforms: Resume," Vedomosti, November 14, 2007.
[6] Dmitri Kamyshev, Viktor Khamrayev, "Idlers, Idiots, Swindlers," Kommersant, July 7, 2007.
[7] Arina Borodina, "Viewers Unconnected to Elections," Kommersant, November 13, 2007.
[8] Moscow Times, "The Faces of United Russia," October 23, 2007.
[9] "A Sacred Moment," Kommersant, October 27, 2007.
[10] See Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., "Russian Duma Elections: How the U.S. Should Respond to 'Controlled Democracy,'" Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum No. 908, December 12, 2003, at www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/Russian-Duma-Elections.cfm.
[11] Francesca Mereu, "Russia Hasn't Separated Business from Politics," International Herald Tribune, November 7, 2007.
[12] Suzanna Farisova, "All of You Are Right. I Support You and You," Kommersant, November 12, 2007.
[13] Viktor Khamrayev, "United Russia Denied Obvious Pact," Kommersant, November 8, 2007.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Gennady Zyuganov, "We are the Only Opposition in the Country," Izvestia, October 19, 2007.
[16] Izvestia, "United Russia and the President's Approval Rates on the Rise," October 17, 2007, and Izvestia, "Zhirinovsky Squandered Away 170 Million," October 17, 2007.
[17] "Figure-skaters/Footballers Making the Impression No Longer: Vladimir Zhirinovsky presented Andrei Lugovoy," Kommersant, September 18, 2007.
[18] Izvestia, "United Russia and the President's Approval Rates on the Rise," and Izvestia, "Zhirinovsky Squandered Away 170 Million."
[19] Yuly Taratuta,"A Just Russia Got a D," Kommersant, October 10, 2007.
[20] Vladimir Putin, in discussion with Valdai International Discussion Club, September 14, 2007.
[21] Yulia Sukhonina and Marie-Louise Tirmaste, "Rightwingers Framed: SPS is a participant in the first smear campaign," Kommersant, October 8, 2007.
[22] Marie-Louise Tirmaste, "Right-Wingers Forced into Dissident March Ranks," Kommersant, November 14, 2007.
[23] 'SPS Leader Nikita Belykh Slams Kremlin for Pressuring Candidates Running on SPS Ticket; Appeal to State Duma Candidates, Activists and Operators of the Union of Right Forces," (press release), Public Relations Service, Union of Right Forces, November 13, 2007.
[24] Yulia Sukhonina and Marie-Louise Tirmaste, "Inviolable Violations," Kommersant, November 1, 2007.
[25] Boris Nemtsov, "The Cost of the Question," Kommersant, November 1, 2007.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] "Churov Says Observers Get in Way," Moscow Times, November 7, 2007.
[29] Alexander Gabuyev, Vladimir Solovyov and Viktor Khamrayev, "Europe Turning Away From Russia" Kommersant, November 19, 2007
[30] Ibid.
[31] "Churov Says Observers Get in Way," Moscow Times.
The United States should send the Kremlin a clear message that theintegrity of Russia's democratic process will largely determine thedirection of its development and the future of U.S.-Russianrelations.
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12/03/2003 031386037 Ann-Marie Lawrence 5 Feet 6 Inches 120 29 Female Brown Bleached Blonde Fair White 04/30/1974
On November 22, 2003. A friend dropped off Ann-Marie Lawrence, 29, at her residence on the 2400 block of Fulton Street, near Stanyan, on that evening. Instead of going into her residence, Lawrence suddenly ran across the street into Golden Gate Park. Neither friends, or relatives who live in Southern California, have heard from her since that time.
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"Just awful"
Ugh. Reads like the author just taped a bunch of note cards together. No thought or analysis. And to make matters worse, the author relies about 50% on newspaper articles -- for an event that happened 40 years ago. Hello, there are thousands of living witnesses to events -- maybe step out of the library and interview someone.
But the most glaring omission is any insight from anyone who isn't Israeli. The book is 100% written from an Israeli viewpoint. Well, I guess the victors to get to right the history books, but that's not the kind of history book I'm interested in reading.
"Just one "little" flaw"
Good listen, solid B effort story line. A bit too much borrowed from the Firm.
But geez, the extortion scheme which is the basis for the story just isn't credible. Kyle wasn't involved and everyone knew it, he knew it, the black mailers knew it, the police knew it, and the other people involved in the black mail knew it. Still, Mitch, er, Kyle, gives in to the black mailers threats.
Still, great look at big firm life. Ugh.
"Not his strongest, but very good"
I've read/listened to a lot of Koontz and this is middle of the pack for him. The book has a whole bunch of red herrings, which are a bit frustrating. When you finally get past them, though, the book is satisfying. A good thriller with important insights into human nature.
"Good story, but not very well told"
First, I think the narrator was a poor choice. Not that he's a bad narrator, but not right for this work.
Second, I think the author is a bit self-indulgent and builds himself up too much.
But that said, the story is told with broad brush strokes and too little background. More detail and more history would have made a better book.
"Required reading"
Close up personal insights on what is wrong with American intelligence service in the middle east and how this leaves us vulnerable to terrorist organizations. Some of the things which Baer says, if they came from another source, I might view with suspicion. But his credentials of having worked for the CIA in the middle east, in the field, give him credibility to say that we need to find different ways to deal with Islamic terrorist organizations than what we are currently doing.
"Great Story, could have been told better"
The raw material for this story is just riveting, which makes the flaws in the narrative that much more frustrating. I particularly found the discussion of some of the difficult moral choices the partisans had to make to be compelling reading.
Let me also say, I remember well being in 8th grade and reading Night by Elie Wiesel and feeling, forgive me if this sounds like blaming the victim, but feeling angry with the passivity of those who went into the gas chambers without a struggle. This book not only shows another side of the story, but it provides a very convincing, and heart-tugging discussion of why some didn't resist.
My only critique is that it is written more as research paper than as a story. For example, Chapter 11 is entitled (paraphrasing) "The Formation of New Social Structures", and discusses, well, social structures among the Bielski partisans. It seems to me a more inventive author would have woven that in to a narrative.
Certainly, this is a book I heartily recommend. It is easy to say "we must never forget", but a book like this is important to ensuring that we consciously remember the holocaust, rather than simply have it locked in the recesses of long term memory.
"Inane and self indulgent"
It is ironic that while the authors say that in order to sell you must put your focus on your customer -- they fill the book with self indulgent personal anectdotes. We are forced to endure story after story about the author's bout with breast cancer, and about their trips to Europe.
The actual advise they offer is embarrassingly bad: Don't be late to an important sales meeting? Don't bring a Papermate pen to a sales call with the Bic Company?
"Weak middle"
I really enjoyed Odd Thomas, but this didn't live up to it.
I liked the character enough to read Brother Odd and that is a great read. My advise is to skip Forever Odd -- there really isn't anything in the book you need to know to enjoy Brother Odd.
"Excellent book"
Well narrated. Hope the sequels are added to audible


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April 21, 2008 Life Packaging The Gift Inside
We have all had the experience of encountering someone whose life seems so completely different from ours that we can almost imagine we have nothing in common. However, if we go deeper into observing, we will see that we all have the same things going on in our lives. It is as if our different lives are in essence the same gift, wrapped in an infinite variety of containers, wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows. Everybody experiences loss, grief, happiness, excitement, anger, and fear. Everyone can have money issues of one kind or another, and everyone struggles with difficult choices.
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